Gluten-Free Moroccan Macaroni Bowl (+ a giveaway!)

I don't follow a gluten-free diet or think of gluten as an evil thing to avoid, but I know there are a lot of people out there who have to avoid it for health reasons, and for their sake I'm happy that there now seem to be so many gluten-free alternatives out there.  People should not have to go without food like pasta!

Catelli pasta is one of my favourite brands here in Canada because they offer so many alternatives to regular white pasta.  I love their line with vegetables in the pasta, but I usually buy the whole grain pasta.  Last year they launched a line of gluten-free pasta including penne, fusilli, and spaghetti, and recently they added macaroni to the line-up and asked if I wanted to give it a try. 

Turns out it tastes just like regular pasta, even though it's made from white and brown rice, corn, and quinoa.  I still prefer using whole grain pasta whenever I can, but it's nice to know there's a tasty alternative out there for those with gluten sensitivities or intolerance, or for me to use in dishes where whole wheat doesn't really work as well, like in this pasta bowl.

Catelli has lots of awesome pasta recipes on their site, and I decided to go with a Moroccan version to test out this pasta, and I'm so glad I did!  Everything about this pasta is so different from your typical tomato sauce pasta, and even though it looks like there are a lot of strange ingredients in this, they all work together so well!

Instead of a sauce, this pasta is tossed with a light dressing full of fresh lemon flavour and lots of spices.  You also use some of this dressing to roast some cauliflower and chickpeas, giving them awesome flavour and texture.  I never roast chickpeas for pasta, usually tossing them in raw, but now I always want to eat them this way - I love that they get a little crispy!  Also mixed in there are some green olives, sliced dried apricot, feta cheese, and mint leaves.  I know it sounds a little weird, but trust me that it all the ingredients are balanced and together make an amazing flavour, so don't leave anything out!  I couldn't stop eating this right after I made it and already look forward to making it again.

If you want to try out this gluten-free pasta yourself, you can get a coupon for $1.00 off here.  And if you're lucky (and live in Canada), you have a chance to win a whole year's supply of Catelli's gluten-free macaroni!

To enter to win this awesome prize (with a retail value of approximately $180), please follow the instructions in the Rafflecopter widget below - there are three ways to enter: leaving a comment on this blog, following me on Facebook, or on Twitter - pick one or all three for more entries!

Please be sure to enter with a valid e-mail address or Facebook account so I can contact you if you're randomly selected as the winner.  The contest will close at midnight EST on Sunday, June 8th, 2014.  Please note that as this is a Canadian product, this contest is open to Canadians only (sorry, American friends!)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

And don't forget to check out the recipe below!

Disclosure: This is not a sponsored post.  I received one box of pasta to make this recipe but was not compensated in any other way for my time, ingredients, or thoughts, which are all my own :) I just thought this was a great giveaway opportunity for my readers!

Gluten-Free Moroccan Macaroni Bowl with Roasted Cauliflower & Chickpeas

Slightly adapted from Catelli Pasta

Makes 4-6 servings

Ingredients:

1 (540mL) can of no-salt added chickpeas, drained and rinsed

4 cups cauliflower florets (about 1 small head or 3/4 of a larger head)

1/3 cup fresh lemon juice

1/4 cup olive oil

2 tablespoons honey

1 tablespoon minced or grated fresh ginger

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 tablespoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon each salt and pepper

1 box (340g) Catelli® Gluten Free Macaroni

3/4 cup slivered dried apricots

1/3 cup sliced green olives

1 cup crumbled feta

3/4 cup loosely packed chopped fresh mint leaves

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400°F and line a large baking sheet (I used two) with parchment paper or foil.  Add cauliflower and chickpeas to a large bowl.  Whisk lemon juice, oil, honey, ginger, garlic, cumin, cinnamon, salt, and pepper in a small bowl until combined.  Drizzle 3 tablespoons of the dressing over the cauliflower and chickpeas and toss to combine.  Spread cauliflower and chickpeas onto prepared baking sheets in an even layer.  Roast in preheated oven for 30 minutes or until browned, tossing halfway through.

Meanwhile, cook pasta according to package directions.  Reserve 1/2 cup of the cooking water before draining.  Toss cooked pasta with roasted cauliflower and chickpeas, apricots, olives, feta, mint, reserved pasta water, and reserved lemon dressing.  Stir until combined and serve warm.

Shamrock Personal Pizzas for St. Patrick's Day

Last year, I made these heart-shaped personal pizzas with heart-shaped toppings for Valentine's Day, and I loved them so much that I decided to try to do the same thing for St. Patrick's Day, but with shamrock pizzas and shamrock toppings!

These follow the same method as the heart-shaped pizzas - just divide a ball of pizza dough in four, shape each piece into a shamrock, then top each one with desired St. Paddy's themed toppings, depending on individual tastes!

Let's start with the dough.  You can either buy a storebought ball of dough, which is what I did with the heart-shaped pizzas, or make your own.  For these ones, I made Martha Stewart's whole wheat pizza dough.  I cut the recipe in half, which made enough to form 4 personal pizzas.  I skipped the freezing step, and went ahead and baked them two at a time, for 15 minutes at 450°F.  Here's my attempt at showing how to form each ball of dough (after it had risen) into a shamrock shape - it's super easy!

Let's move on to the toppings!  I tried four different topping ideas, which I'll describe below.  If the pictures are too small to read, just right click and 'view image' to see them larger.

The green pepper pizza was my favourite visually.  It was a little tricky to cut the green pepper into shamrock shapes, and mine certainly weren't perfect, but you can at least tell what they're supposed to be!  Just cut a green pepper in half, remove the seeds and membranes, cut each half in two, flatten your four pieces, and cut them into shamrock shapes.  You won't need the whole pepper, but this gives you a little space to work with in case you make a mistake!

I thought this was my most creative idea - combining green olive slices and stems to form shamrock shapes - but the finished product didn't look quite as nice as it did before it was baked.  The olives slid around a little during baking (probably because I used way too much cheese), so I had to try to put them back in place afterwards.  Next time, I might just wait to place the olives on the pizza after baking so they don't get covered up by cheese and you can tell what they're supposed to be!

This one's really easy because you can just use kitchen scissors to cut a leaf of lettuce, spinach, or basil into a shamrock shape!  I paired mine with a pesto spread (to keep it green) and tomatoes, and I had intended to add goat cheese but then realized I didn't have any, so just picture it on there!

This was my attempt at a healthier pizza, and instead of using shamrock shaped toppings, I covered the whole thing with green ingredients!  I spritzed the dough with olive oil, topped it with a bit of mozzarella (but gruyere would be good too), then put it in the oven for 10 minutes.  Next, I added a layer of chopped brussels sprouts and broccoli, seasoned it with salt and pepper, and popped it back in the oven for 5 minutes until the greens were just starting to brown on the edges.  The result was a crisp and light pizza that was actually my favourite!

These made the perfect individual sized pizzas and I loved having a different one to eat each day for leftovers!  The clover shape actually breaks perfectly into three "slices", which makes them easy to eat.  If you have other ideas for green toppings that would work on these, feel free to share them in the comments!

Eggplant & Zucchini Pasta with Chickpeas and Feta

Because it's Friday, I'm sure you guys would rather hear me talk about something entertaining rather than making this entire post about pasta, right?  If you answered no, then skip down towards the end where I will tell you all about this lovely pasta dish, but if you answered yes, then you are about to hear about my first adventure in celebrity stalking!

Last Saturday, my sisters and I went to the vegetarian food festival in Toronto (which my sister Genevieve wrote all about on her blog Vanilla & Spice, if you're interested).  The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) also happened to be on, which is a pretty big deal and draws lots of celebrities.  Before we left for Toronto in the morning, I quickly researched if any big celebs would be there at the same time as us, and noted the time for a Johnny Depp red carpet!  We ended up heading over there half an hour early, thinking we would have a great spot if he did show up, but little did we know that people show up super early to these things, and it was already packed!  I knew I would never see anything down on the ground, so I found a lovely spot up a bit higher, in the middle of a bush.  Literally, I stood in the middle of a bush, in a pile of mud, with branches in my hair, and a guy blowing cigarette smoke directly in my face from beside me, for half an hour, waiting to catch a glimpse of Johnny Depp.  And guess what?  It paid off!  I got to see him (and Natalie Maines from the Dixie Chicks) from about 15-20 feet away and took lots of pics - it was so exciting being part of a big crazy screaming crowd and being so close to such a big celebrity!

I guess celebrity stalking is addicting, because my sister and I decided to head back to Toronto Monday evening after we heard that Ben Affleck was going to be at a red carpet premiere.  We arranged it so that we would take a Greyhound that would arrive in Toronto at 5:30, we'd walk a block to one premiere where we would arrive in plenty of time to see Bill Murray and Laura Linney before their movie premiering at 6:30, then walk another block to the 7:00 premiere featuring Ben Affleck and Rachel McAdams, then head back home.  It involved a lot of bus riding, but we knew it would be worth it!

Unfortunately, this plan didn't work out so well.  The bus ended up being an hour late arriving in Toronto.  ONE WHOLE HOUR!!  I was fuming!  So when we finally pulled in at 6:30 (after leaving our home over 3 hours earlier), we sprinted past the first theatre, which already had no one left outside, and continued on to Ben's theatre, praying we didn't miss him.  There was still a humongous crowd, which was a good sign!  As I stood balanced against a filthy pole (which I didn't realize was staining my butt until later), we overheard others in the crowd talking about how they had already seen Bill, Laura, and Rachel, but that Ben still hadn't arrived, so we were counting on him to save our night and make this trip worth it.  We waited .. and waited ... and waited .. until we were pretty much the only ones left waiting and realized that Ben had decided not to show up after all. 

Our friend in Toronto ended up saving our night by taking us out for a delicious feast of all-you-can-eat sushi, but we were still pretty disappointed about Ben.  I'm veeeery tempted to go back tonight to see Matthew McConaughey, who is supposed to be making an appearance, but I'm too worried that things won't work out again (especially trying to get to Toronto with Friday rush hour traffic), so I think I'll play it safe and spend the weekend resting and recovering from this cold!

My story really didn't have a point except to distract you from your work for a while, and it has nothing to do with this pasta either, so I'm not even going to try to connect the two here!

If you just want to hear about this pasta, here's what you need to know: This is a fresh and healthy vegetarian dish that you may think is just an ordinary pasta, but a few unusual ingredients like chickpeas, olives, and feta, make this unique and flavourful.  It might look like a few more steps than a regular pasta, but it's worth it (especially for the amount of leftovers, if you're cooking for one like me!), and it's a great way to use up some of that end-of-summer zucchini and eggplant you might still have in your garden!

Has anyone else been celebrity stalking at TIFF (or elsewhere)?  I'd love to hear your stories!

Eggplant & Zucchini Pasta with Chickpeas, Olives, and Feta

Adapted from Clean Eating magazine, April/May 2012

Serves 4-6

Ingredients:

2 medium zucchinis

1 small eggplant

2 tablespoons olive oil

Salt & Pepper

1 pound tri-colour vegetable rotini pasta (or whole wheat rotini)

1 (398mL) can fire-roasted diced tomatoes

1 (340mL) jar roasted red peppers (or 2 roasted red peppers), drained and rinsed, chopped

1/2 teaspoon dried basil

Pinch red pepper flakes (optional)

1 (540mL) can chickpeas, drained and rinsed

1/2 cup sliced green olives

4-5 oz low-fat feta cheese, crumbled

1/4 cup chopped parsley

Directions:

Preheat oven to Broil.  Quarter zucchinis lengthwise, then cut into 1/4-inch thick slices.  Cut eggplant into ½-inch rounds, then slice into bite-sized pieces.  Toss chopped zucchini and eggplant with olive oil, and season with salt and pepper.  Spread into one layer on a foil-lined baking sheet and broil in the top-third of the oven for 10-15 minutes, tossing halfway through, until golden brown and soft.

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil, and cook pasta according to package directions.  Drain and rinse, reserving a bit of pasta water.

Meanwhile, add diced tomatoes, roasted red peppers, basil, and red pepper flakes to a medium saucepan, bring to a simmer, and cook over medium-low heat while the pasta is cooking, about 10 minutes.  Season to taste with salt and pepper.  Transfer to a blender, remove plastic stopper from lid, cover loosely with a kitchen towel, and puree briefly into a slightly chunky sauce.  Add a bit of the pasta water to thin out the sauce, if necessary.

Combine cooked pasta, roasted vegetables, tomato sauce, chickpeas, and olives in a large saucepan and cook over low heat 1-2 minutes to heat through.  Serve and top each portion with 1 oz crumbled feta and 1 tablespoon chopped parsley.  Season with additional pepper, if desired.